Andrew V. Abela, dean of CUA's School of Business and Economics, and Stephen Schneck, director of the University's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, are quoted in a Washington Post article previewing the upcoming meeting between President Obama and Pope Francis.

Visit with pope in Rome will give Obama a chance to spotlight economic inequality

A decision to visit Pope Francis at the Vatican in late March provides President Obama with an opportunity to highlight the problem of economic inequality, an issue he has placed at the forefront of his second-term agenda.

Administration officials announced the trip Tuesday, saying Obama will travel to Rome after a pair of summits in Belgium and the Netherlands...

“I think the difference between Pope Francis and President Obama on the question of poverty is one of emphasis,” Andrew V. Abela, dean of Catholic University’s School of Business and Economics, wrote in an e-mail. “The President is policy driven, while the Pope, by contrast, sees poverty not as a technical problem — for him it is a human, relational problem.”

“At the root of the Pope’s vision is personal relationship. He is fighting against a culture of exclusion; poverty, for him, goes way beyond a question of insufficient income: it means being left out of the human family,” Abela continued. “I think that the real opportunity here is for the pope’s call to each one of us to care for the poorest among us to be heard and acted upon. I think it diminishes this call to reduce it to a policy debate.”